The Directors Guild of America have made their choices of the year's five best directors, and if you've been following the awards season race up to this point, the results probably won't surprise you. This year's nominees for the DGA Award are Ben Affleck, Kathryn Bigelow, Tom Hooper, Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg.

That would be the directors of five of the year's most acclaimed films-- Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Les Miserables, Life of Pi and Lincoln-- and the five films likely to receive the most Oscar nominations when those awards are announced on Thursday morning. The five directors have also been the most widely assumed lineup for Oscar's Best Director category, and that assumption definitely won't be going anywhere with the DGA essentially rubber-stamping the general critical consensus.

The Directors Guild Awards are held on February 2 this year, and though a single winner is eventually chosen, the event is typically an opportunity to honor everyone nominated and take real time to consider their work-- a nice contrast from the hubbub of the Oscars, and probably a pleasure for the nominees as well. Bigelow and Spielberg are the likeliest winners amongst the crowd, though with the general awards season so tight, who can really know for sure right now? Let us know what you think of the DGA picks in the comments below.